WASHINGTON – A year after slashing New York’s anti-terror funds by nearly 40 percent, the feds yesterday gave the city only a meager increase, while lavishing millions on low-risk sites across the country.
“It’s outrageous,” fumed Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens). “It’s the first responsibility of the federal government to protect its citizens from foreign invasions. We were invaded on 9/11.”
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, “Since the preponderance of the threat is here, the preponderance of the money should be here.
“You talk to anyone who knows in the intelligence community: The consensus is that we’re at the top of the terrorist target list . . . Obviously, we’re not getting the funds that that warrants.”
New York got a one-year hike of $10 million – or 7 percent – for a total of $134 million in funding from the federal government’s main grant program for threatened urban areas.
But the funding level is still a stunning 37 percent less than it was in 2005 – even as terrorists keep New York in its sights.
“Unfortunately, I don’t see any evidence that the threats have declined,” Mayor Bloomberg said at a news conference.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the city shows up in about half of terrorists’ plots and threats, but doesn’t get nearly enough urban-threat funds.
“Given the fact that the terrorists focus on New York, given that the one al Qaeda attack has hit New York . . . 17.9 percent of the total pie is not fair,” he said.
Schumer charged that the funding process has been “far too political” under Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Even as New York got a puny boost, small- and mid-sized cities facing far smaller threats enjoyed yet another security windfall.
Phoenix got a 207 percent increase in urban security funds over last year. Denver got a 79 percent increase, and Indianapolis got a 76 percent increase.
Eighteen other cities ranked higher than the world’s financial capital in per-capita funding this year.
“I am all for protecting the beer industry in Milwaukee, but not with the same funds used to protect Wall Street and the United Nations from a terrorist attack,” fumed Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).
“We are clearly the No. 1 target,” said Rep. Peter King (L.I.), the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee.
Meanwhile, New Jersey will receive more than $61 million in federal homeland-security funds this year, an 18 percent increase over last year’s $52 million antiterrorism allotment.
In a press briefing, Chertoff defended the funding formulas, and urged critics who “have a better way” to come forward and “see if they carry the debate.”
But the Department of Homeland Security still reserves 45 percent of urban-threat funds for so-called “second-tier cities,” such as El Paso, Texas, which got $5.8 million this year, and Memphis, which got $4.6 million.